Ever caught yourself mentally rehearsing every disaster that could unfold on the way to the airport, minutes after booking a holiday you were excited about? You're not alone — and your brain thinks it's helping.
Psychologist Joanna Arch explains that the mind evolved to scan for danger, and it doesn't distinguish well between real threats and imagined ones. That's why a scary what-if can crowd out far more likely outcomes. People who ruminate often believe the worrying protects them — it will somehow prevent the bad thing, or at least prepare them for it. In practice, Arch notes, we rarely anticipate most of the misfortunes that actually happen, and anticipating them doesn't make them less bad anyway.
Catastrophising shows up alongside anxiety disorders, OCD, depression, PTSD and chronic pain, but Arch says anyone can slip into it — and her students increasingly do, thanks to worries about the climate, politics and the economy. The good news: there are evidence-based ways out, mostly drawn from cognitive behavioural therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy.
Her favourite tools:
Write the worst case down. Counterintuitive, but spending about 20 minutes describing your feared scenario in first person, present tense — concrete details, no hedging — creates distance and slows the rush of thoughts. In her own pilot study of 29 adults with advanced cancer, this kind of writing reduced fear of progression and related trauma symptoms.
Get outside. Anxiety narrows your attention onto a perceived threat, so deliberately noticing the world around you — yes, literally touching grass — widens your focus and calms the response. Anything that pulls you out of your own head helps, and enjoyment of nature makes it even better for countering numbness.
Swap 'what if' for 'why do I care?'. We spiral about the things that matter to us, so treat each worry as a signpost to your values. A scary health thought becomes 'my health matters — how do I look after my body today?' With practice, worries become cues to reorient, not cues to spiral.
Plan something to look forward to. Catastrophising robs you of the ability to picture a positive future, so force one onto the calendar: a dinner with a friend, a book release, a trip once work quiets down. Then visualise it properly — what you'll see, hear, smell, feel. This 'positive anticipation' is a pillar of positive affect treatment, which engages the brain's reward system and helps restore the capacity for pleasure.
Why does this matter to travellers? Pre-trip anxiety is one of the most common reasons people hesitate to book at all, and catastrophising on the road can sour experiences you've paid for. Having a few techniques ready — especially the 'plan something to look forward to' trick, which is basically what travel is for — means your imagination works for you instead of against you. No single technique suits everyone, so experiment; some tools fit certain spirals, others kick in better at different times or places.
Full credit to NZ Herald Travel for the original interview.
